The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1887-08-11
INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.
Advantages Of Smoking and
Drying Meat as Practiced in
the Southern States.
Difficulties Most Western Farmers Will
Experience in Securing Food
for Their Stock.
Keeping Pork In summer.

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generally used on farms during the
warm months Of the year. Hogs are
raised on almost every farm in the
country, and they contain facilities for
slaughtering them and for preserving
their meat. This meat is convenient
Tor cooking in farm houses where soft
coal is generally employed for cooking
purposes. Pork can be fried or boiled
over q blazing fire, while Goals are
needed for broiling beefsteaks OF. NUT
ton chops. The fat of pork is very
convenient for frying fish, eggs, pota-
toes, musb, batter-cakcs. and many
kinds of vegetables. Dried beans are
cooked in no way so well as by soaking,
p~arboiling, and baking in connection
with tolerably. fat salt pork. For. a
steady diet for field hands or for men
engaged in almost any kind of hard
work there is no kind Of meat that
equals pork. 1T is preferred bv labor
crs in all parts of the world. It is as
generally eaten by out-of-door laborers
in Cuba4as in Iceland. European and
American farmers who eat pork do four
times as much work as the natives of
India, whose principal food is rice.
It is practical to cure pork in more
ways than beef and mutton, and there
by secure a greater variety Of. favors,
Pork is delicious and tender when
cured and cooked in almost any man
ner. There is hardly any waste about
a dressed hog. # 1t is true that good
soup can be made of the bones and the
meat that adheres to. them, as is. the
case with fowls. beef, and mutton, but
the head and feet ..deservedly. rank
among the table delicacies. For eating
during warm weather there are few
kinds Of meat that will compare with
boiled ham, unless it: be boiled shoulder
which is i'll some respects superior.
For q breakfast dish there is no meat
superior to side bacon, cut in thin
slices, and fried or broiled. Tt contains
the desired Proportions of fat and lean
meat, is tender, and has an appetizing
flavor. Sausage, which is generally
made of scraps of pork and favored
with herbs raised in the garden, is one
of tho cheapest, as tits n of the, best
pkinds of-meat food. Pork can be pre-
pared for the table with less trouble
and cost than any kind of meat. A
considerable amount of good butter
must be used in cooking or flavoring a
beefsteak or a m~utton-chop but ham,
bacon, picked pork. or sausage is
cooked in the fat it affords. "
Though pork is more easily preserv-
ed for use during warm weather than
beef and mutton. there. is some trouble
in keeping it, if the heat is as great as
it is the present summer. Farmers in
the north may learn much from those
in the south In relation to. curing the
flesh of the hog. The custom of smok-
ing, as we'll as of sailing and sugaring
the meat, is general there. Almost
every part of the hog is treated with
dry sugar and salt and then hung in
the smoke-house for additional curing.
1t is never placed in brine, and care Is
taken to get as much moisture out of
it as possible. The dry salt and sugar
that are applied to the surface of the
meat attract much blood and moisture,
which are drained off before the pieces
are hung in the smoke-house. In this
building the process of drying goes on
in connection with that of smoking.
The weight of the meat is largely re-
duced, but nothing is lost except moist
ure. The smoking and drying continue
| for several weeks after the meat is
first hung up, and are repeated at in
tervals throughout the year. Every
portion of the meat is delicately flavor
ed with the smoke produced by burn
ing hickory bark or corn-cobs. t
Pork cured in this way is not likely
to spoil if. kept for many years. The
only danger arises from insects that
may deposit their eggs in the meet dur
ing warm weather If they gain ACCESS
to it. They will not enter q smoke
house if it is kept dark. If it is desir-
ed to take the meat from the smoke
honse, it can be protected from insects
by wrapping each piece in paper, or by
covering it with cloth to which a coat
ing of starch or -four paste is applied.
The smoked meat covered as recon-
mended can be hung in an open garrett
or placed on shelves. where it will keep
All indefinite length of time without liza
bility to injury. If it is, placed in a
damp OF unventilated room or in a eel
lar it may absorb moisture and have it's
surface covered with mold. In most
European countries old bacon is pre-
ferred to new. It. contains less moist
ure, is more tender, and has a better
flavor. The smoked meat prepared in
our great packing establishments does
not possess good keeping qualities. It
is sailed by immersing it in brine, and
10 smoked only long enough to give its
surface q light cinnamon color. Care
is taken to keep all the moisture in it in
order to give it weight. 4
Picked pork is much more: common
than .dry-salted and smoked meat in
the northern states. If sufficient care
is taken it is not very difficult to keep
salt pork sweet. On account of lack of
care and improper place for storage
large quantities, however, are lost
every. season. The pork-barrel. should
stand in a cool cellar, at some distance
from the GROUND. If it is shaped like
the kits in which fish are packed, the
layers of meat can be better kept il
place. It should have a tight-fitting
cover, that will keep out insects and
currents Of air. The pieces Of meat
should be cut with a sharp knife, SO
that they will be OF uniform width and
have no ragged edges, The bits Of. de-
tached meat that becomes looseled as
pieces Of pork are taken ont. 81 thesbar-
frel and which float on the surface Of
the brine are almost certain to purify
and to cause the entire contents of the
barrel ia become rancid or to acquire
an unpleasant flavor. 1t every particle
Of pork is kept submerged Id q brine
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